Transcendental Chess

Transcendental chess was invented by Max Lawrence from Brooklyn, New York.
It belongs to a large family of variants, where chess is played with the
pieces set up differently at the start of the game. A later, similar
game is Fischer Random Chess: most likely,
Fischer was aware of Transcendental Chess when he proposed his own
variant, and may have been inspired by it.

In 1981, the Transcendental Chess Organization was formed, an organization
that still existed in 1994, and most probably still exists now. This is
a lively organization, where many players play Transcendental Chess
games, mostly by post. Already thousands of games have been played.
Lawrence publishes a journal, called Transcendental Chess, which
appears eigth times per year. In 1993, a subscription for overseas
subscribers costed US$ 17. Write for more information to

TC/Lawrence
1655A Flatbush Ave.
Brooklyn NY11210
USA

See also

Transcendental Chess. Site with more
information from the Transcendental Chess Organization. (Link.)

Rules

Randomly, a starting position is generated. The pieces of white are
shuffled and put in random order on the squares a1 - h1. Likewise, the
pieces of black are shuffled and put in random order on the squares a8 -
h8. The setup of black may be different from the setup of white. Only
setups where the bishops of each player are on squares of different
colors are taken.

To make this fair, games are always played in pairs - the same setup is
used in both games. Each player plays white in one of the two games and
black in the other.

There is no castling. In his first move, a player may, instead of making
a normal move, use transposition: exchange the positions of two
of the pieces at the first row. A transposition that puts the bishops of
a player on squares of the same color is not allowed. All other rules
are as in orthodox chess.

Auction Transcendental Chess is a variant of Transcendental Chess, where
only one game is played, and an `auction' is held for the right to play
with some side.

Players can bid to play white or black, and add a number of tempi (that is
given to the opponent when the bid is accepted). A
tempo is the right, to make, before the game really starts a
transposition or a move with a pawn. Still, a player may make only one
transposition. So, if a player bids `black, two tempi', and the other
player accepts the bid, that other player may make a transposition and a
pawn move, or two pawn moves, before making his `real' first move in the
game.

Written by Hans Bodlaender, based on information from Variant Chess, and The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.
Thanks to a reader for drawing my attention to Transcendental Chess.
WWW page created: August 18, 1997. Last modified: August 30 2001.
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